some help need with Torpedo luftwaffe photo album.

[hornetsfan]

Hello , I'm hoping I get some help in learning more about a WW2 photo album that I have just purchased .
The album belonged to a Luftwaffe officer who served with the Torpedoluftwaffe flying Heinkel He 115 's Torpedo bomber sea planes .
Firstly , can someone please confirm that the badge he is wearing is consistant with the above ?
I'm aware that the He 115 was a 3 seater ..how likely was this man to have been a pilot ?
His movements from the captions in the album are as follows
Oct 1939 Eckernforde Germany , he then spends the rest of 1939/ 1940 in Poland ...by jan 1941 he is in Holland . From spring 1941- late 1942 he is in Napoli , Italy ...album ends at this point ...there may more albums after this date or perhaps he was killed ?
From his movements and dates can anyone identify his squadron ? His surname may possibly be Stockmann ...can anyone confirm there was an officer by this name with the Torpedoluftwaffe ?
many thanks
jim

[hornetsfan]

..

[Scott C.]

The badge he is wearing on his pocket is for a pilot, that much is certain. Nice photos.

[fdodge]

Definitely a flugzeugfuhrer offizier.
From the photos, he has that cocky posture also. I love it.
Regards,
Frank

[Pierre]

You find the He 115 in different Küstenfliegergruppen. Your pilot could have served in the Küstenfliegergruppe 406 as I have found an Oberstleutnant Karl Stockmann who was Gruppenkommandeur of this unit between November 1939 and Febraury 1940 and between July 1940 and July 1941.

Pierre

[hornetsfan]

Hello Scott , Frank and Pierre . many thanks for your comments , thats very helpful .
The album is a nice authentic item with over 350 photos . These are fairly well captioned . Frustratingly , only around 15 are of the planes ..but loads of photos of the man posing , probably nearly a 100 . I think his women adored him .
The name Karl is in the album , so it seems probable that the album belonged to Karl Stockmann , if any forum members are able to discover anything about the man I would love to know more .
Usually family photos , places visited , wedding photos in military albums have little appeal . But in this album for some reason I feel differently .
The background photos in this album give some insights into this mans character . Yes , in several of the uniformed photos he certainly has a cocky air about him . But in the album we see him with his girlfriend ( later Wife ) , with his new born baby and living the high life in Italy , here he looks a warmer individual .
He is not a bad looking chap , but looking closely at the left side of his face he has some deep scars running the full length of his face , so at sometime he would have looked fairly rough .
Some general questions come to mind ....in the album there are a number of photos where he is socialising with Italian officers and their familes ..there is also a large group photo containing Luftwaffe and Italian Airmen . In Italy did the 2 airforces work closely together ? as equals ? or did the Germans have the upper hand playing a training or command role ? Did they operate out of the same airfields / air bases ? ..and was there a fusion of aircrew ... did Italians fly with Luftwaffe crews and Germans in Italian planes ?
many thanks
jim

[Hirschstein]

Jim the man's service is post Kusten flying the He 115 as the Kusten units did not operate in Italia, so he must have been transferred over to another LW air ops unit ?

can you post some scans of some of the He 115's as they might be wearing their individual Wappen that we may Id the unit(s) ?

E ~

[hornetsfan]

Hello Hirschstein , if I find some spare time over the weekend I will scan the entire album a put up some photos of the planes .
cheers
jim

[Scott C.]

I have found an Oberstleutnant Karl Stockmann who was Gruppenkommandeur of this unit between November 1939 and Febraury 1940 and between July 1940 and July 1941.

Pierre

My reference shows an Obst Karl Stockmann, Kdre. KG 26 won the DKiG 16.03.43. I see no reference for an RKT by that name.

[Simon O.]

The photo shows a leutnant so forget Karl Stockmann.

Kü.fl.Gr.406 i think is out as it was stationed in Norway


From what you write i think 3./Kü.Fl.Gr.106 fits. It later became 6./KG6 in 1942 and served in Italy.